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The Red Bank Charter School has hired a new head of school, an administrator whose last job was clouded by calls for her resignation.

Kristen Martello, the former superintendent of the Berlin school district in Camden County, is scheduled to succeed Meredith Pennotti, who guided the Oakland Street institution through its first two decades.

Jobs and after-school programs that were cut this spring are being restored, said Superintendent Jared Rumage, seen at left with board president Fred Stone before a lobbying trip to Trenton in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank school officials have been busy in recent days restoring jobs, programs and contracts eliminated just four months ago.

Under Governor Phil Murphy’s first budget, the borough’s 1,422-student pre-K-8 district saw a 55-percent jump in state aid, which board members said Tuesday night was a cause for both celebration and frustration.

Jobs and after-school programs are on the cutting block unless the state comes through with an additional $750,000, said Superintendent Jared Rumage. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

The average Red Bank homeowner would pay about $117 more in taxes to support borough schools this year if New Jersey legislators don’t come through with more funding, Superintendent Jared Rumage said Tuesday night.

Even with the levy increase, the local primary and middle schools could see cuts in staffing and extracurricular programs such as jazz band and the fledgling cross-country track team, he said.

District officials say they may have to eliminate a new cross-country program in order to balance the budget. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank school board members and parents reacted with outrage Monday night to an effective reduction in state aid under funding announced by the administration of Governor Phil Murphy last week.

Though nominally a $178,503 increase for the district, more than that sum is to be relayed to the Red Bank Charter School, Superintendent Jared Rumage said at a board meeting at the primary school.

With the district seeing an effective decline in aid while state funding to the charter school’s rises $1,025 per student, “I think the time has come to have the discussion about running two public schools in Red Bank,” Rumage told redbankgreen.

Red Bank Charter School S students with Principal Meredith Pennotti on International Day.

Classrooms at Red Bank Charter School were transformed into disaster zones as students immersed themselves in a learning experience that combined performance art with history, culture, science and cuisine as part of the school’s annual International Day.

First came the “freezemob,” as hundreds of orange-clad participants stopped in poses of kindness on a stretch of Broad Street in downtown Red Bank. Then came the “flashmob,” as music was cranked up and the mob broke into joyous dance.

The occasion was the fifth annual ‘Dance for Kindness,’ a campaign to support random acts of kindness that involved 100 locations around the globe Sunday. redbankgreen trained its lens on the local edition; please check out the additional photos below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.) (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)Read More »

After the conclusion of their school-record 10-4 regular season last week, the girls’ basketball team of the Red Bank Charter School presented an oversized thank-you card to their final opponent, Calvary Christian of Old Bridge. The note congratulated the Lions on their team play and sportsmanship.

“Several of their girls gave our girls notes last time we played them, so we thought it would be nice to do something for them,” said charter school coach Vern Ford.

Seventh-graders from the Red Bank Charter School presented a report on “serving a healthy town,” and Mayor Pasquale Menna, below, returned to the dais after heart surgery. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Here’s some of what went on at the semimonthly meeting of the Red Bank council Wednesday night:

• Mayor Pasqule Menna presided over his first meeting following a month away following open-heart surgery. He thanked Council President Art Murphy for filling in for him at various events, and for “chauffering me around – ‘Driving Mr. Daisy,’ I suppose,” he said.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream Speech, on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

By ISABEL HALLORAN

In his I Have a Dream speech, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.”

Martin Luther King Jr. modeled his life around these words. He lived with the faith that African Americans’ suffering would not go unnoticed, and that someday people would realize that racism, segregation and unequal rights were not fair, and should have never been accepted in the first place.

Martin Luther King Jr. asks people to have faith, because he believes that it will get them through the hard times. Faith is like hope. It can be challenging to believe in, but possessing faith and living by it is an important part of life.

Halloween celebrants from Defined Logic, above, Yo Mon Yogurt, right, and the Red Bank Charter School (see below) were among the characters who added random splashes of color – and fake blood – to a gray Halloween in Red Bank Thursday. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

Five years from now, if dreams pan out, a handheld gaming device called CREATiV Mind will be as ubiquitous as iPhones.

And just about then, its creators will be turning old enough to vote.

Based in a prototypically messy teenager’s bedroom on Red Bank’s South Street, CREATIiV Mind is the brainchild of three 13-year-olds who count Steve Jobs and Nikola Tesla among their idols. Just a month old, their prototype product is an awkward mix of high technology and duct tape.

But the three – CJ Bevacqua and Evan Leifman of Red Bank and Tommy Murray of Atlantic Highlands – are serious about building a market-changing device.

Two Red Bank Charter players hugging after they lost their game, above. Below, Ashley Houck of Charter driving on a Seashore Academy defender. (Photos by Lola Todman. Click to enlarge)

By LOLA TODMAN

The Red Kettle Classic is a day-long series of elementary-school basketball games taking place from early in the morning each December at the Salvation Army gym in Red Bank.

This year’s edition, the eighth annual, held Saturday, featured boys’ and girls’ teams from Holy Cross and Forrestdale schools in Rumson; Knollwood School in Fair Haven; Seashore Academy in Long Branch; and Red Bank Charter School and St. James School in Red Bank.

In the large-school division, the Holy Cross boys beat Forrestdale, and on the girls’ side, Knollwood won for the fourth time in eight years over Forrestdale.

Students from Red Bank Charter School helped unload a tractor-trailer full of donated food and personal care items at Lunch Break Monday morning. The material came from Johnstown, Pennsylvania-area residents, who responded to a plea for storm relief by radio station 96Key. (Photos by Wil Fulton. Click to enlarge)

Action during the 2011 edition of the Basie Cup girls’ game, which ended in a tie after overtime. (Click to enlarge)

By LOLA TODMAN Red Bank Charter School Intern

Bright lights and an anxious crowd. Players overwhelmed with pressure, almost wishing it was over before it starts, but thinking about the rush of victory and the accolades that follow.

Game on.

This is what it feels like for players competing in the Count Basie Cup, the annual pair of soccer games that pit teams from the Red Bank Charter and Red Bank Middle schools, and take place under the lights tonight at Count Basie Fields.

In a presentation heavy on how labels are deployed in political battles, Irma Lester wondered aloud whether the term “war” correctly describes what she sees as a recent stripping of reproductive and economic rights from women.

Despite the harsh connotation of a battlefield, she said it “does catch the sense of danger that we’re in today.”

Whatever terminology backers of women’s rights use to describe themselves and their causes, their conservative opponents are “going to demonize” them, Lester said. “Stick with ‘feminist.’ Stick with ‘abortion.'”

They were supposed to be drumming up attention for the Red Bank Charter School raffle of a $4,000 diamond pendant donated by A.H. Fisher Diamonds. But these girls were distracted Sunday by the sudden appearance outside the Broad Street jewelry store of a cute puppy.

Tickets are $20 each, and the raffle will be held at the store at 4 p.m. on May 20. (Click to enlarge)

The girls of Red Bank Charter School and Red Bank Middle School fought to a scoreless tie, even after an overtime, in their second annual soccer matchup, held at Count Basie Fields Saturday. Later, the charter school’s boys topped their middle school counterparts, 3-1 under the lights. Students from the schools worked the play-by-play from the announcer’s booth.(Click to enlarge)

Three years’ worth of student achievements at the Red Bank Charter School put the school at the top of a national list to receive a heavy infusion of cash  and a boost in morale  for its teachers and administrators.

Hungry guests line up at the Red Bank Charter School’s annual Spanish Heritage Dinner held Friday night to raise funds for school programs. (Click photos to enlarge)

On Thursday, the K-through-8 school will host its annual International Day, when students transform classrooms into showcases for the cultures, religious practices, and languages of countries around the globe.

From the Knickerbockers to the Smithereens and a thousand tribute bands in between, there’s always been something in the water here in Jersey when it comes to The Beatles; a proprietary feeling that dates back to the first time they touched tarmac on the other side of the Hudson  and today’s edition of Red Bank oRBit has one more sip of that Beatlejuice, courtesy of a fairly Fab collection of veteran Shore musicians.

This weekend sees the second annual Fab Forward Ball fundraiser for the Red Bank Charter School  an event coordinated by long-playing local rocker and RBCS father Jeff MacPherson. It’s a gig that puts an innovative twist (and maybe even a shout) on the old Liverpudlian family recipe. We’ve got the details on the concert.

Then tune into our orbit the rest of this week, for a roundup of things theatrical on local stages, our weekend whirligig of ‘pinionated picks, and even more glittering gleanings from The Orb listings database  only in Red Bank oRBit!